RAINY DAY DISCOVERIES
RAINY DAY REJOICINGS!
If it rains on your holiday in Italy, do not be put off! Here is what happened when my bad leg was nearly healed and we took off one gloomy morning. It got worse; heavy skies, pelting rain. But it turned out to bring us some of our best memories of our three-month slow tour.
WE KITTEN-SIT
We had not yet visited Salandra or Stigliano.
I was still recovering from my leg, but tired of staying in bed. Giuseppe had to go to Rome on business. He stayed with his brother, no doubt.
So we were left to care for the kittens (seven now, with two ‘new’ babies) and ‘the Dog’. He was Nero to us, though by now Elena had named him Bruno. He answered readily to both names.
Basically a sweet-natured animal, he was totally confused by being love-starved. (And quite often food-starved as well, I suspect, when Giuseppe stayed away for days at a time). As our gentlemanly, genial host repeatedly explained, ‘This is a farm, and I need an alert guard dog to protect the property.’ We have to accept that even in our country some farmers take this view – and without being a farmer one cannot question that its validity.
Ce La Vie! Autumn approached. It felt very cold one morning at 15C. I wondered, ‘how are we going to cope with December at home?’
RAINY DAY – FINDING LOCAL COLOUR FOR A CRIME NOVEL
While I was laid up Graham was getting on nicely with writing a crime story about a lovable, fat Italian Detective Inspector. He found plentiful material in the area to provide ‘colour’. As well as the regional food there are boar, wolves and deer in the woods and around the lake, where we came across a snake (off-putting). Boar and even wolves I can just about walk amongst, but snakes…
RAINY DAY WALK BY THE LAKE
About Lago Giuliano: it was a reservoir for Matera, and had been built in the 1950’s.
One day we decided to brave the wolves, despite Giuseppe’s insistence that they had already moved down in this comparatively warm weather at the end of October. Our scepticism grew when he added bears to the list when talking to me; just how gullible does he think I am?
One of my first outings in the support stockings was to explore this tourist attraction nearby. Not for its boats and swimming (at least not when we went down – everything was closed). We went for the peace and the guided wildlife walks. On our second visit, when I could walk further, we went there expressly to use their services but we found the Wildlife Centre also closed. However, we saw plenty of flora and fauna to interest us.
RAINY DAY WOODS – WHAT NO WOLVES? – WEASELS INSTEAD
It was not really raining on THAT day – just a brief shower.
Lake Giuliano is not a very large lake, but it is very beautiful. There is a road right around it, so we moved off after mooching around in the woods at our end. We spotted many attractive birds, even egrets. Further on we stopped to admire a little island. We caught swift movement in the bushes. We worried – a fearsome boar? A wolf perhaps? But no – we kept still; the creature emerged – a weasel.
We got back in the car and found a rusty but attractive sign for a restaurant. The wide gates just off the road were open, so we drove up until we found some more, larger gates – locked this time.
Through them we could see an attractive complex, with the restaurant at its centre. I looked up the place on the Internet and it appears very pleasing; a sort of holiday village as well as the restaurant. The name of the place bears out some of Giuseppe’s claims; it is called
Agriturismo Tenuta la Volpe, which translates into Farmhouse Estate of the Fox.
GRAHAM IS GIVEN A GIFT
Graham was doing all the shopping in Miglionico. On one such visit he obtained for my cousin Clive a nice piece of olive root with twisted markings: Vincenzo, who had inherited some very small, old olive groves, found it and gave it to him.
He took Graham to his house and his family ‘cave’, deep beneath. It is a storeroom full of old farm implements and other fascinating stuff. Graham values this new fast-formed friendship, and has a great respect for Vincenzo, who is very kind and courteous.
23rd October:
RAINY DAY EXCURSION – DEFYING DOCTOR’S ORDERS
Our highly enjoyable visits to Salandra and Stigliano happened this way:
That morning, we did a big laundry wash. After giving Graham time to put in an hour or two on his writing, we opted to ignore the doctor’s orders for me to stay in bed. Life was too short!
Instead, despite threatening rain, we decided to venture again into the nearby Regional Park of Gallipoli. We would take a roundabout route I’d printed back in England. (I was pretty sure we’d find where those two chaps on the telly went to see ‘the best’ boar sausages made).
SALANDRA & STIGLIANO – A CHANGE OF PLAN
Finding Salandra was a case of Serendipity.
Our Rainy Day tour started like this:
Graham noticed that we had already been to two of the places on my previously planned route. So I modified it. It was Graham’s turn reading the book ‘Christ Stopped at Eboli’. He was currently learning about Stigliano in the 1930s. So we chose to go there instead.
RAINY DAY IN SALANDRA
We stopped first in Salandra, a charming and very clean little town. Apart from the very old building housing the municipal records we did not see much evidence of a ‘Citta Mediaevale’. Perhaps there had been an earthquake, or it had been razed in the wars. Or perhaps we completely missed an old part, which would have been in the true centre.
WE MISS THE ‘CITTA STORICA’
We walked round a few short streets behind the modern church, but could see no sign of a ‘Citta ‘Storica’. Knowing Basilicata, we feel we may well have been quite mistaken. Unfortunately, we met nobody with any knowledge of English sufficient to understand our enquiries.
But it was a pretty town for all that. We were immediately given a welcome upon getting out of our car, and presented with a sheaf of booklets on the area (sadly, all in Italian.) We guessed that Salandra was not on the main ‘tourist route’, but we found it charming. There was an attractive, modern looking church overlooking a large, paved piazza (Chiesa di San Rocco 2 pictures below). A stall set up in the square was selling nuts.
RAINY DAY SURPRISE –
SALANDRA’S SPECIALITY – WE BUY NUTS
Nuts of every kind and quality and all picked in this region. So – we bought Christmas walnuts for many of our relatives. They were fresh off the tree. The vendor broke one open for us to taste the crisp, creamy flesh.
We also bought pistachios (we decided to eat those before they ‘went off’). Also three kinds of almonds, and a great bag of uncooked peanuts. Graham loves them. I imagined the dog, Nero, might like to help him out. The chickens could tackle the shells.
There was general hearty laughter when a cheeky local resident disappeared and came back with a tiny bag of nuts for which he wanted 6 euros. Even the stallholder joined in, as he tipped generous amounts of his beautiful shelled almonds into our bags. Everybody was very friendly, as you find in the South. Especially so in the sparkling little bar, where we had Kaffé Machiata and some delicious pastries.
STIGLIANO
RAINY DAY – WE FIND A REFUGE
Then, despite spits of rain, it was off to Stigliano. We drove through the Little Dolomites, as this range of relatively small mountains is called. The lower slopes and valleys are bright green with grass and trees; unusual for Basilicata as a whole.
In a lull in the rain we spotted this once grand, deserted Masseria. Graham grabbed his camera and hopped out of the car. The road was empty, so I followed him up the track. A screech made me look up. Circling high above were two graceful predators – red kites. Graham was lucky to capture one in his shot.
Up and up we went after returning to the car. We negotiated hairpin bends and chestnut forests, to tiny Garaguso. Then close by we found San Mauro Forte. Graham ignored my pleas to explore this small citadel. (“We’ll never get anything to eat here, and it’s almost two o’clock”).
As rain started to fall heavily, we at last swept down and entered Stigliano.
STIGLIANO: A HOTEL AT THE BOTTOM OF THE HILL
We passed a hotel at the bottom of the hill. It appeared to be closed (and in any case might be too expensive). So we toured the streets a little, looking for an alternative place for lunch. The rain increased, and this did nothing for Stigliano. The grey stone buildings were all shuttered and bare. To us, with our growling bellies, the town looked dismal indeed.
STIGLIANO SEEMS A DESERTED TOWN – ON SUNDAYS
We were wondering at the ‘deserted’ look of Stigliano until we remembered it must be Sunday. (You lose track of days on a long holiday). At last we saw a van coming down a side road. Graham deliberately blocked it, to ask the driver where we could get something to eat. He said the only place where we ‘might be lucky at this hour’ was in the hotel we had passed. He assured us it was open even though by now it was nearly 3pm.
RAINY DAY RACING – BACK TO THE HOTEL
This time we approached it from a different angle; from the back. We saw a waiter fetching chairs in from the covered terrace. Graham stopped the car and I raced through heavy rain, crossing the road to intercept him. Yes, certainly they were open; we could still have lunch.
Gratefully, we followed him in the back way, past the ‘facilities’.
RAINY DAY SURPRISE
We trooped, mud on our trainers, into a beautiful light and airy room done out in cream. It had many elegantly laid tables. About four were occupied. A very long one took up one whole wall, to accommodate a happy, chattering family party. You see this everywhere in Italy. Italians love to meet up with their extended families – and eat together.
WE GATECRASH A BIRTHDAY PARTY.
THAT ONE WAITER was kept very busy indeed serving about thirty people in all. There was a young lady at one end of the long, cheerful table. She lifted her short cape and started discreetly breastfeeding an extremely young baby. Of course, that was when the waiter came in with a stack of plates to put before each person in that party. Then he and the owner/manager came through with platter after platter of gorgeously arranged seafood, salad, and the selection of cured meats called ‘Antipasti Misti’.
RAINY DAY FEAST FOR TWO:
GRAHAM’S ‘BEST BRAESOLA’ – MY SHRIMP AND ORANGE SALAD
He ran back and returned with our Antipasti. Graham enjoyed some of the best braesola he’s had in Italy (air-dried beef cut very thin). It came on a bed of rocket, and was sprinkled with thin shavings of parmisana. I had a salad with shrimp (prawns) AND would you believe, thin slices of peeled orange, served on a bed of rocket and tiny lambs’ ears. It was sprinkled with corn kernels, and drizzled artistically with balsamic vinegar. Delicioso! Good Matera bread and Vino Rossa la di Casa (house red – just a small half-carafe).
TAJARIN ALL’UOVO – VERY SPECIAL PASTA
Graham then was served with very thin, spaghetti-type pasta, made rich with many eggs (Tajarin All’Uovo’). It was smothered with porcini – the most prized mushrooms, and by far the most ‘mushroomy’. I had Agni something – I knew that was lamb. It proved to be four thin but tender lamb cutlets accompanied by a large plate of cooked spinach, (bright green and delicious). Also potatoes boiled, cut into wedges, and then fried in olive oil. Not quite chips, but both tender and crisp.
I AM CORRECTED
Meanwhile, the jollity level at the big table was rising. When glasses were raised in a toast we held up ours and said ‘To il Bambino!’ (Though when the mother passed, on her way to change the baby she gently explained that it was un Bambin-a; a girl.
WE ARE INVITED TO JOIN IN THE ‘BUBBLY’ BIRTHDAY TOAST
Nevertheless, our toast was well received. We were slightly embarrassed, though, when one of the gents came over and said in good English ‘Actually it’s my 50th birthday.’ So we congratulated him and offered a glass of our wine, but he was obviously drinking much better stuff.
We had not yet ordered dessert. Indeed, were discussing whether we really had room for it, when the owner/manager came bustling in bearing a very large box. This could only contain a birthday cake. He set it down on a small extension-table, took out the cake and lit candles.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY IN TWO LANGUAGES
The guests then all clustered around the host, who was holding aloft a large silver cake-knife. We looked on and just as they were about to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ in Italian, Mr 50th Birthday beckoned the waiter. He asked him to place two champagne flutes by us. He himself came over and filled them with bubbly. Then we were brought generous slices of the cake, in time to join in (in English) the singing of ‘Happy Birthday’. (The rest sang it in Italian). They followed this with a much jollier Italian birthday song.
We will never forget that lunch, made special by being included in that family’s private celebrations. Perhaps it does happen in Britain, but I feel it would be much more remarkable than amongst warm-hearted Italians.
Indeed, during the next weekend we would twice be celebrating with Italian families our own 40th Wedding Anniversary. Watch this space!
Hotel Ristorante Mariano, Via Principe Napoli 65, 75018 Stigliano, Italia
You will find my review (under ‘Graham, Liverpool – it’s his site) on Trip Advisor.
Text by – Jackie Usher, SWWJ. (aka author Debbie Darkin, & ‘Graham Liverpool’ on Trip Advisor.)
Photographs by – Graham Usher.
